A UDRP has been filed for another three letter .com domain name
The UDRP was filed by Albir Hills Resort, S.A. against the domain SHA.com
SHA.com is owned by Telepathy, Inc.
The complainant does own a federal US Trademark on the term SHA with a filing date of July 27, 2007 and a registration date of August 26, 2008
According to DomainTools.com, Telepathy has owned the domain name since October 22, 2001 which is the oldest record they have on file for the domain.
Although the domain name is parked there are no suggest terms on the page.
The Albir Hills Resort is located in Spain and seems to own and operate the SHA Wellness Spa which has its own site at shawellnessclinic.com
Here is some information from the site:
“”SHA is a wellness clinic dedicated to improving the health and welfare of people through the fusion of ancient oriental disciplines and revolutionary western techniques. The main areas of SHA: SHA method, which is based on a highly cleansing diet based on macrobiotic principles adapted to modern times, balanced to the needs of each person, combined with natural therapies, anti-aging medicine unit ( healthy-aging), capable of slowing the aging process and prevent disease by applying the most advanced techniques and aesthetic medicine unit, which will allow you to achieve excellent results both facial and body at the way less invasive as possible. All designed and supervised by world renowned experts including Michio Kushi-known figure, a world leader in modern macrobiotics.””
Thanks for reporting this. I sent the company an email telling them what I think of their filing. I hope others will do the same.
This should be a piece of cake for Telepathy. The complainant does not own Sha.es even, how do they intend to establish rights for the .com?
Ironically, shaspa.com has nothing to do with sha or spa services either 😀
…does Vegas make book on outcomes of UDRP filings?…
These disputes are becoming more and more ridiculous. Notice how 99% of the time companies are just going after high dollar generic .COM only and using UDRP as a cheap lottery ticket.
Like you can’t Google the term “SHA” and find 1000+ different companies, groups, and organizations using the keywords. What makes this company so special?
ICANN needs to take action now and redesign UDRP. There needs to be a common sense process with actual penalties for frivolous filings.
Even if an obvious generic domain had a potential infringing ad on, it is still not clear that turning over the domain is the correct recourse. Turning over a potential $100K+ asset is many times far out of line compared to actual damages.
These type of disputes belong in actual court, not kangaroo court.
Why build a brand, when you can steal one?
Brad
Right now UDRP is so stacked against the respondent it is ridiculous.
The best case for the respondent is they spend a lot of time and money to defend the dispute, and win.
If the respondent doesn’t put the resources in, or even gets a bad ruling, they will lose the domain.
The person who brings the complaint has nothing to lose. Even if they are found for reverse domain hijacking nothing happens.
At some point, when RDNH is found, the respondent needs to sue in court for actual and punitive damages.
Maybe that type of potential downside would limit the frivolous disputes.
The legacy extensions have been around for 25+ years, and look how messed up the dispute process still is. Good luck with the new extensions and legal issues.
Brad
reverse hijackers are popping up from all directions.
If i owned a three letter domain like sha.com for example, is it a good idea to trademark it?
Do you trademark “sha” or the whole domain “sha.com”…never understood this…anyone know???
“Why build a brand when you can steal one?”
No doubt there are some trademark owners, i.e., the ones who file the legitimate UDRP’s not highlighted by this blog, who are asking the same question.
They spent significant amounts of money registering a trademark, on marketing and on advertising campaigns. Then ICANN and their registries and approved registrars allow anyone to register that trademark as a domain name. How much did the domain name registrant spend?
There are two sides to every story. Reading this blog only gives one.
just trademark sha
This is a ridiculous suit.
Amazing how only the .com is infringing. Not the .net or .us or .uk
Fuck um.
“These disputes are becoming more and more ridiculous.”
Yes – a pretty good indication of how well these type of cases will eventuallty hold up in a real court – where the “judge” is not paid $1000 by the complainant.
Look at what Panelists like Richard W Page have created – they know it and keep digging themselves deeper and depper into a hole – but I do not think they will be able to run for hills when this all comes unglued
It is of no use as long as we spend time in posting comments on these stupid UDRP issues. Unless domain investors unite and establish some organisation to protect their rights through media coverage, lobbying and other traditional methods (just like other business communities protect their rights).
What a bunch of BS…
send them to “BullS”
Krishna
We do have an organization and its the Internet Commerce Association
We give them $10K per year in support
Their banner and a link to their site is on the bottom of the blog
that is an incredible website! i bookmarked it and made it my homepage like they suggested.
what i need, whenever i need it. sha.com!
[[(((gong)))]]
maybe the date you should be looking at is the date shawellnessclinic.com was registered: 20 may 2007.
now how is the person who registered sha.com in 2001 supposed to know about sha wellness clinic in spain when the clinic wouldn’t even have a website until 6 years later?
did they have a site under some other domain name in 2001? if you typed “sha” into altavista (2001 is before google dominance) would you see results for sha wellness clinic in spain?
Thank you Berkens, I do not know about it. Sorry for my ignorance.
it is now better to have
sha.co
The bullshit continues. Ricks case and Bullshit. Now the LLL.com market.
Shove it up your asses on filing these bogus udrp claims. When will it end?
Unfortunately, the only thing that will be able to Permanently stop this increasing Abuse Of Power is …Legislation.
Until and unless that happens, this legalized form of domain theft will continue to Skyrocket.
More and more organizations will learn that this is the preferred method of obtaining someone else’s domain.
Since there are really no legal standards and requirements for filing and no fines or punishments for reverse domain highjacking, they will see that they have very little to lose and a lot to gain.
It won’t be long before it will take several bloggers working full time to keep up with reporting on these cases.
A Permanent solution will Have to be Forced.
Unfortunately, the only thing that will be able to Permanently stop this increasing Abuse Of Power is …Legislation
ICANN is Responsible for UDRP and has $350,000,000
Class Action litigation is the only way to stop ICANN
The ICANN deep pockets will attract litigators and other gators 🙂
There are other technical solutions** to end UDRP (and ICANN) but obviously ICANN is not interested in dissolving
**.COM owners will be able to co-register in the new .COM platform free of ICANN
“Unfortunately, the only thing that will be able to Permanently stop this increasing Abuse Of Power is …Legislation”
Unfortunately, the only thing that will be able to Permanently stop this increasing Abuse Of Power is …LITIGATION
I liked an idea I read once where ICANN could collect a bond or security fee of sorts from the complainant in order to cover the legal/punitive costs of the defendant in the case of a finding of reverse hijacking. That would certainly level the playing field and make them think twice.
“ICANN could collect a bond or security fee of sorts”
—-
ICANN is unlikely to be **adding** systems that “collect” more money.
ICANN will likely now try to protect their retirement nest.egg of .CASH.
They can milk the $350,000,000 for decades. UDRP reform can be another
carrot they dangle on a stick to the groupies that follow their road-shows.
As people have seen, ICANN will also likely take the [naive] approach of offering 100% refunds when people cry foul. That is typical of a CYA corporate culture.
Trademark owners are going after the best domains because domain owners ask a fortune for their sites. Therefore, the price blocks innovation.
It is better for them to take a risk at winning the best domain. If a domain owner is obviously abusing the domain to inflict harm and or to make revenue off a trademark name, then they should lose their site.
However, the trademark owners believe they are entitled to the best name to serve the population. They view parked sites as a waste.
The new movement is to file against the domain owner to steal their domain. Some should invest the time to post poor domain disputes. Define reverse domain hijacking. Increase awareness to inform customers who they are dealing with.
When you own the best sites, you take a risk at a people unwilling to pay the money to acquire your investment. They believe that it is better to take the domain a cheaper route.
Start a petition. Have domainers sign it. Get thousands of signatures. Present it to a decision maker. Instead of complaining, do something to enforce change.
“Trademark owners are going after the best domains because domain owners ask a fortune for their sites. Therefore, the price blocks innovation. ”
That’s akin to taking over your 4/2 house because you won’t sell it at the price of an outhouse.
“Start a petition. Have domainers sign it. Get thousands of signatures. Present it to a decision maker.”
—-
Who would that “decision maker” be ?
a Registrar ?
Verisign ?
ICANN ?
WIPO ?
US NTIA ?
Do any of the above really care about a bunch of “domainers” ?
**What if there are multiple .COM clones ? and none of the above control those clones ? HINT: UDRP decisions would have no effect
It all points to eminent domain for UDRP Panels – and we all know how that worked out in the real courts with WalMart – but in the mean time many UDRP Panels have bills to pay – so complainants are needed to fill they pipeline.
HP re-enters the tablet market !
theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2174590/hp-enters-tablet-market
Stuart Lawley spent millions upon millions of dollars on an add campaign which encouraged companies to “protect your brand.” They listened, and now that’s what they’re doing.
maybe it’s not so far-fetched to imagine the com registry emerging from the icann gtld game as the winner. maybe they could become the one true registry. in some sense, they already are.
remember that icann was formed to deal with what is now the com registry. it was formed to address the monopoly of networks solutions who ran the com registry. the goal was to create competition and lower fees for domain names. verisign acquired network solutions’ rights to run the com registry.
as a result of icann greed and stupidity we may end up with the lesser of two evils. or the greater of two evils. which is worse:
1. the evil of having a registry monopoly. one registry makes all the money. they might increase fees for domain names.
2. the evil of having a seemingly untouchable california company shaking down businesses with valuable trademarks and enabling widespread consumer confusion- a problem that inevitably leads to more profits for and the continued relevance of the company.
Nope. Price just tells the price, period.
Whether that so-called blocks innovation depends on whether that person decides to limit him/herself to said domain. That didn’t stop countless others from innovating differently, some of whom succeeded and still are.